CES 2019: Truth, tech and the art of experience

For the past 55 decades, CES is where companies, inventors, investors and business opinion formers have come to understand about, launch and monetize the inventions that have shaped our lives and futures.

Over simply a ‘technology ’ show, from the statement of the VCR in 1970 to the showcasing of wearable tech in 2014, CES is the place where manufacturers have characterized our modern lives through invention.

While innovation and technology will be the lifeblood of expansion for those companies that come here in order to make a splash, the cornerstone to knowing CES is understanding the universe of customers — the profound penetration of innovation and technology in their daily lives, and in the goods, services and experiences they appreciate.

It’s possible to find any tech here: instinctive computing, artificial intelligence, augmented intelligence, virtual reality, blockchain and audio interfaces. However, the best use cases for all of this technology responds to heart altering client truths.

Customer Truths

In my opinion, effective innovation focuses around some core ‘client truths’ & ‘outdoors in’ views (‘outdoors in’ because they’re derived from understanding the world beyond a business – client ’s life, expectations and beliefs). Both of these approaches should serve as guides and catalysts for innovation.

We, as customers, purchase into products, experiences and services that make life better. In my opinion they meet our needs in these ways:

Easier — Is your product easy, transparent and intuitive? All of us want manufacturers to get rid of the unnecessary, be proactive in problem solving while also reducing puffiness.
Faster — With the attention span of less than 8 seconds, we’re impatient for performance, usefulness, responsiveness and trades. Whether we want to search, find, transact or entertain — we appreciate curated choice that satisfies our requirements in real time. But bear in mind, precision is everything.
Personalized and emotive — 90 percent of our decision making is psychological, and according to how exactly we ‘feel’not always what we think. Brands enable us navigate it by creating empathy and comprehension. The more we engage with customers, the further we ‘understand ’ them and understand how to deliver value through tone of voice, storytelling and recognition.
Amazing — We love the design aesthetics of both function and form in all aspects of our brand and service encounters. We crave listen to detail that also provides benefits related to differentiation, amusement, and can complement our lifestyles. 90 percent of that which we procedure is via which we now ‘see’we don’t want dull or ugly tech. First impressions matter, and consumers fall in love with brands that pay attention to particulars.
Meaning — Customers appreciate purpose. The awareness of ethics, trust and security that communicates an idea in the ability of individuals, groups and communities to hold institutions accountable. Consumers want to ‘do the perfect thing’ along with also support values of honesty, craft, transparency, and community.

When the above 5 client ‘truths’ are wrapped into the psychological storytelling story of a brand, and delivered by relevant and operational utility, consumers purchase.

Inside Out

Standard innovation frequently started in the R&D labs of big companies, or through business leadership. It was based on what capabilities the innovators previously controlled. And it was frequently based on the prevailing technological improvements of this sector (or sectors).

In each sector or class there are trends — or patterns — which consumers react to and which drive innovation. Some of these trends are related to all categories, and some are specific to the class or industry. These days, the convergence of multiple technology is enabling new platforms and interconnected thinking that’s generating both speed and disruption of crossover applications.

Let’s take a look to find out how these improvements are being applied from the inside out for inventions that produce the new trends we’re seeing at CES.

The 5 most technology trends are:

Voice and audio — as a main means of data transport, brand and control interfaces. No more are we screen or keyboard limited. Audio allows for virtual assistants such as Alexa, Siri, Cortana and Bixby to appear as powerful means by which we reside, shop, work and connect with devices, our data and our everyday requirements.

Amazon Alexa goes into automotive industry in CES 2019
Immersive encounters — the use of haptic and sensor tech is allowing more multi-sensory adventures to improve amusement, gaming, travel and wellness, as well as education. Wearables are currently enabling for connected adventures to be part of everyday life and augmenting our capacity to socialize with our real and digital everyday.

Tesla Haptic Suit shown at CES 2019
Resilient technology — is the usage of technologies to respond in real time to issues of safety; disaster/emergency relief or recovery; taxpayer and community wants and customer engagement to assist prepare and resolve crisis.

Source Roof Panels in CES 2019
Robotic automation — as automation makes regular or challenging tasks easier, it simultaneously allows robots to do the jobs humans no longer want or desire to do. Whether vacuuming a rug, drone autonomous or delivery vehicles — bots are set to be man’s closest friend.

Rollable TVs and butler robots in CES 2019
Ecosystems of supply chain and require worth — technologies is allowing for manufacturers to associate with each other, producing collaborative platforms for the development and of new technology. Open source thinking has fueled the explosion of apps, services and harmonious utility that’s defining the way we socialize in a host of various ways. This also has enabled a subscription economy to emerge that caters for various degrees of personalization, strength usefulness and connected services.

P&G Ventures in CES 2019

These are complimented by those broader consumer observations that result at the confluence of the Consumer Truths and Tech Trends:

Your device is the portal site — select ‘systems’ carefully because your decision will have consequences of connectivity and compatibility. The big battle is here between the likes of Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Alibaba, Samsung, LG and many others.
The world is going paperless — electronic living/archiving/security is no more analog. Increasingly, real time and sensor led surveillance/integrated management (screen, cloud, datasets) and Favorable response is anticipated for simpler and efficient living.
Dashboard diagnostics, predictive forecasting, comparative performance — efficiency and efficacy are the way we live and make decisions which we expect by quantifying and comparing our lifestyles and actions.
Sustainable living –We purchase more products with the objective of producing a less negative impact on the entire world. Specifically, clean energy must offer operational utility for home, work, and drama .
On demand and subscription business models are allowing for both supply and demand innovation across industries, giving customers value. The idea of possession is shifting and creating new distribution and demand value propositions — finally changing industries.
The majority of households, individuals and social constructs imply the previous models of segmentation are outdated. Folks would like to be treated as individuals. Financial units that recognize identity, and benefit , are needed at a climate where the definition of ‘self’ has changed.
Redefined virtual/physical port in home/work/school/Cellular is all about the lines and context of decision making, B2B/B2C/D2C, C2C.
Shifting legislation around the way technology is affecting lifestyles rules and regulations will need to be developed which will alter how we see issues of privacy, safety and identity AND being a taxpayer.
Healthcare and financial solutions are getting to be de-regulated, less institutional and more liable; more holistic and integrated together with lifetime value, and care.

So where do we end? For me personally, there are just two things that stand out. Firstly, user and customer experience are critical to innovating both from an outside in development standpoint and an inside out application and development standpoint. The brands that involve their customers more are on course to creating compelling propositions to satisfy their emerging needs. And finally, brands must also use technology to support legendary moves which interrupt, re-define value and make differentiation. Technology empowers the impossible to become potential There’s a few boxes that have to get ticked. Consumers appreciate personalization. They appreciate much more choice and less sophistication. Make it easy, easy and speedy. Ensure it is beautiful and desired. Utilize my data with care and trust, but you should be proactive, purposeful and helpful to my own values of confidence and credibility.

Once a brand has ticked all these boxes, then their perceived value increases in the opinion of their customers. And that much needed ‘expansion ’ question gets answered.